, 1887-04-06
INSTANCES OF MORBID IMPULSE.

Cases OF Emotional Insanity '-Fatal
Fascination of a Sudden Thought.
1t Is a familiar idea that people at the
top Of a high tower or on the edge OF o
dizzy cliff feel tempted to throw them
selves over. This is, perhaps, the COM
monest instance Of a morbid impulse.
Yet there is in the term a significance, a
breadth of suggestion, which must relate
back to the experience Of every man and
woman and explain feelings which have
at the time seemed odd beyond explana-
ton, feelings which have often led an
innocent. self respecting individual to the
verY verge of an atrocity which would
have made Of him a criminal.
Morbid impulses may be criminal or
humorous. The humorous, no doubt,
when executed, often carry their perpe-
traitor to the commission Of assault and
battery, at least. That the criminal inn
pulses Of this kind are responsible for a
very large proportion of ~offenses against
criminal laws no one acquainted with
that line Of defense known as emotional
insanity can for q moment doubt. And
the very vital interest attaching to all
such cases depends in a large degree on
the hazy and almost indefinable causes
and surroundings which are involved in
tho consideration of morbid impulses.
History records notable instances. 1t
was, perhaps, more than anything else,
due to q morbid impulse that Nero struck
of the head of that Roman artisan who
came to him with q beaten glass cup in
his hand and affirmed that the secret of
making glass malleable had yielded to
his patient investigation. The historians
who mention the hitherto irreparable loss
civilization has sustained by the failure
to perpetuate this wonderful invention
ascribe Nero's act TO q fear lest the
precious metals should be superseded.
But to a student of this fascinating SUBJ
ject there can be no doubt that Nero fell
an instantaneous victim to q morbid i'm
pulse to crush out at one blow this mar
velous discovery. 1t seems, indeed, a
relief to find SO human an impulse in the
nature of u creature who was SO in
human as to fiddle when the greatest
city Of the world was burning.
Ratings are built securely around the
tops of all the tallest towers in the world
to prevent involuntary suicides. The
subject Of q morbid impulse loses at once
all regard for consequences. Whether
the indulgence of the craving SO suddenly
born will put an end to his own life, even,
or inflict a dangerous or fatal injury on
some other, perhaps n friend or loved
one, is immaterial.
1t is quite conceivable that q dentist,
on almost uncovering the tbrobbing nerve
OF n tooth. should be seized with o sud-
den desire TO penetrate to that sensitive
tissue, and should, with one movement
OF the wrist, thrust the instrument deep
into the agonized cavity. But it isn't
likely that such cases would become
known If they happened. And there
would be under all such circumstances
the general excuse of accident or unfore-
seen complication.
1t is thought by some that many of the
instances recorded in the daily papers Of
hands of persons who didn't know they
were loaded" may be explained on the
theory of morbid impulses. The Irish
man at Donnybrook fair, who hit every
bare pate he saw, was moved first of all
by n morbid impulse. There is something
devilish in the disposition of many if not
most human beings, which may never
crop oNt, never come to be realized in the
domain of their consciousness, but which
may seize on them with a force appar-
entity superhuman at some critical mo
ment, when weapon in hand, perhaps in
sport, a human life is put suddenly in the
balance and a morbid impulse weighs
down the fatal scale.
1t is undoubtedly a morbid impulse
which prompts one to laugh consumedly
ut the fall of q stranger on the icy pave
ment. There is nothing in itself amusing
In u fall, which may inflict great injury.
But a laugh on a public thoroughfare is
generally its attendant.
People riding in railway cars are not
infrequently smitten by morbid impulses
to knock the hats off people on the station
platform as the train passes. People call
ing on n parvenu are often tempted to
shrek ont in his crowded DIR, wig room
that he made his millions PIG kticking.
People in n public assemblage are famil-
iarly reminded of the man who shrieked
just TO break the stiffness when Patti
rested so long on high c. Every mar
may have, and most people do have,
morbid impulses. The well disciplined
mind doesn't yield to and is often not
conscious Of them.-Johm Paul Bocock in
Detroit Free Press.